Miscreants

The other day I noticed that the plastic disc on the front bumper of my GTI was missing. This disc pops out to give you access to thread in the OEM towing hook if it's needed. Clearly some despicable human(s) had stolen it- for fun or reuse.  Fortunately, there was no damage to the plastic housing that it sat in. So I ought a replacement that needed to be painted to match the color of the car. A few lessons.

a) The replacement code provided by the dealer A9W was inadequate so I scrabbled around and found the original paint code LA9W.
b) Wash then sand the plastic piece with fine sandpaper is a good idea
c) Two coats of plastic primer (black in my case- dry time is about 30 minutes/coat in a heated room)
d) Four coats of LA9W (dry time 1 hr/coat in a heated room)
e) Light sanding between the first three coats.
f) Spray from about 20 cm off
g) Mix the paint by shaking the can for at least one minute
h) Test spray on a piece of cardboard before spraying on the plastic disc
i) Lay the plastic disc on its back to dry

Car looks nice now.

Piggies

I was reading the lyrics of the Beatles song Piggies this morning and thought about how generalizable the lyrics are. Take scientists at conferences for example...

Have you seen the little piggies

Crawling in the dirt

And for all the little piggies

Life is getting worse

Always having dirt to play around in

Have you seen the bigger piggies
In their starched white shirts
You will find the bigger piggies

Stirring up the dirt

Always have clean shirts to play around in

In their sties with all their backing

They don't care what goes on around

In their eyes there's something lacking

What they need's a damn good whacking

Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Living piggy lives

You can see them out for dinner

With their piggy wives

Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon

Jun 13

Woke up at 5 am and after some caffeinating and pottering around, I managed to get packed and leave at 8:15 am. Staley to 150 then picked up 134 just North of Farmer City and just stayed on it till I stopped for the day at Unionville, MO. I crossed the Illinois at Havana and the Mississippi at Keokuk. Both mighty and muddy. Dinner consisted of a wrap at Subway. The youthful staff there, Hunter and Brinda (sp?) posed for pix with me next to the R1200RS.

Searching for Zen (Without Motorcycle Maintenance)

Before geriatric progression incapacitates me, I want to reduce my list of `to-do' things so I'm riding a motorcycle cross-country. I've always liked BMW motorcycles so I'll be riding a 2016 R1200RS from Central Illinois to California and back this summer. I'm making lists of things in order to organize myself. Things to take...


Bike: The bike came with OEM hard luggage and I have a soft tailbag that can hold a Shoei RF1200 but little else after that. I added a small tank bag today to hold my cell phone and SLR camera.

• registration, drivers license, proof of insurance 
• tire pressure gauge, Slime tire pump (need BMW adapter), Dynaseal repair kit, 
• BMW Motorrad Roadside Service subscription
• battery powered flashing light and glo sticks
• bike manual, backup key, Allen/Torx set
• small tank bag, bungee cords and duct tape, Swiss Army knife

Clothes: Breathable wicking clothing for under the riding suit (think Under Armour and the like), sneakers, and flip-flops.

Bike Apparel: Airflow suit, rain suit (RevIt one piece), gloves (Held), helmet (Schuberth), BMW boots, HiViz reflective Sam Browne.

Toiletries:

• chapstick, moisturizer, sunscreen
• razor, occlusal bite guard, toothbrush, floss, toothpaste
• wet wipes, deodorant, nail clipper.

First Aid & Meds: triple antibiotic, nasal steroid spray, band aids, aspirin, antacids, hydrocortisone ointment, prescription meds.

Other:

• sunglasses and reading glasses
• phone, satnav, laptop, cameras, assorted chargers, USB cables
• earplugs, microfiber cloths, notebook and pens,
• roll of quarters, Ziploc bags of different sizes.

Reading Material (hopelessly nerdy):

• Advanced R by Hadley Wickham
• Python for Data Analysis by Wes McKinney

I should also mention that I'm making half-hearted efforts to strengthen core muscles and generally improve fitness but it's really a lost cause. BMW annual service with brake flush today.

Well, I did it. Il-IA-MO-NE-CO-NV-CA and back using secondary roads. 

Soccer and Lalas

Every time I watch a game courtesy of Fox, I sigh with resignation because Alexi Lalas will show up sooner or later and share his unsophisticated thoughts on soccer. I suppose that he has appeal for some viewers or perhaps he's just on because his truculent behavior matches the house style of this network. In any case, he never fails to annoy me. He was not talented as a soccer player- shirt pulling, tripping, and being belligerent seemed to be his best skills.

I'd rather watch Rebecca Lowe, Lee Dixon, Robbie Mustoe, Robbie Earle, Graeme LeSaux, and Kyle Martino (although Martino takes too long to say his piece and doesn't seem to have quite the feel for football that the others do). I should also add that Lowe has taken to showing up in American bars and conversing with the howling drunks who infest such places on game day.

The 2018 Champions League final is about to start and there's Lalas- the frowning uncomprehending basilisk- a complement to the immensely vulgar pre-game music by Dua Lipa that we're also forced to endure.

I see that the Guardian has expressed similar reservations about Lalas and Fox.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/11/fox-sports-world-cup-coverage

I watched a bit of Portugal vs Spain today and the Fox commentators ably reduced the event to industrial grade soccer with a stream of patter more appropriate to high school coaching than top quality international soccer. Yech!

Things got progressively worse with the introduction of Aly Wagner so I just gave up. Fortunately, there was Telemundo. I don't understand more than 5 words of Spanish but it sounds so much nicer than the Fox crew.